


What Was Missing Was You

by happyaspie



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Avengers Endgame fix-it, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Happy Ending, Late Night Conversations, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Tony Stark Coparenting Peter Parker, Pepper Potts Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Peter Parker Feels, Peter Parker is a good big brother, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Star Wars References, Tattoos, The Starks' Cabin, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Lives, Tony Stark has a tattoo, Worried Peter Parker, Worried Tony Stark, injured Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:14:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28991283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happyaspie/pseuds/happyaspie
Summary: While working with Tony in the garage at the Stark's cabin Peter sees a tattoo peeking out from under his mentor's sleeve.  He's seen it before, back when the man was recovering in Wakanda but he'd forgotten about it until that moment.  When he decides to ask about it, he finds out that there is more to the design than he'd thought, leading to some confusing feelings and a late-night conversation.Tony talks to Peter about the five years that he was gone and does his best to help Peter understand how much he was missed and how much he is loved.
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker & Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Pepper Potts & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 78
Kudos: 516
Collections: IronDad (and his Spiderson), The Best Irondad/Spiderson Fics, The Best Peter Parker Whump Fics, The Best of the Best MCU Fics





	What Was Missing Was You

Peter took a deep breath in and proudly examined the holographic schematics that he’d been slowly putting together. It wasn’t the first project he’d ever tackled on his own but this time it was different. When Tony had invited him over for the weekend, he’d suggested that maybe it was time for him to design his own suit. Not enhance or improve upon the one that already existed, but to start from scratch, incorporating what he wanted, to his exact specifications. It was both intimidating and exhilarating knowing that his mentor had so much faith in him. 

‘Poor is the pupil who doesn’t surpass his master,’ the man had sagely stated before sending him a self-amused smirk and cracking a joke about how he understood if it was unclear who he’d been quoting since it wasn’t a Star Wars reference. Peter knew it had been Leonardo Da Vinci and had rolled his eyes at the underlying accusation but he had every intention of announcing the completion of his project by saying ‘I am the master now.’ That thought alone had Peter quietly chuckling to himself as he worked.

At some point, Peter stood up to stretch the kinks out of his back, looking across the room to see what Tony was doing in the process. He spotted him at his usual bench working on yet another redesign of what had to already be the most advanced neuro-integrated prosthetic on the market. He shook his head and studied the way his mentor was manipulating the various images that were being projected around him, certain that he would never grow tired of watching him do what he did best. Then just as he was about to reluctantly turn back to his own desk he caught a flash of a design that had tattooed onto the man’s left bicep and found himself unable to stop staring at it. He’d noticed the marking before while they were in Wakanda, but at the time, it had been the very least of his concerns.

The dust had barely settled after the final battle against Thanos when portals began to once again open up around them. But rather than heroes pouring in, everyone was filing out. Tony had been the first to be taken through, Pepper, Rhodey, and himself following closely behind. The man had selflessly taken on the power of the gauntlet, snapped his fingers and once again declared himself to be Iron Man. But that time it had nearly taken his life. In fact, had it not been for his enhanced hearing picking up on the smallest flutter of a heartbeat even after the arc reactor had gone dark, he would have thought that it had. 

Tony was carted directly into a medical facility and they’d all been left to wait. At first, it had been a bit touch-and-go but between Wakandan medical advancements and Helen Cho’s Regeneration Cradle, the man had been awake and actively fighting bedrest within a week. However, Peter had not been present for the majority of it. 

After being deemed injury-free himself, he'd been ushered to a room where he’d been fed and offered a place to rest until he was able to contact his aunt. The accommodations had been extravagant and appreciated but the stress of not knowing where May was or if Tony would survive had made the first few days that he’d spent in Wakanda feel like a painful eternity. 

The world had been turned upside down for the second time in five years. He’d been told that it had taken years for the government to decide how to handle the massive loss of life and that their reappearance had sent everything back into logistical chaos. A registry had been set up almost immediately in hopes of getting things under control but the process, in general, was slow and confusing. It had taken some families weeks to find one another but with the help of Doctor Strange and the New York Sanctum, Peter had been reunited with his aunt within days. However, the struggle hadn’t ended there. 

It had taken several more days for the two of them to sort out where they would live. May had been turned to dust as well and, like so many others, she wasn’t exactly sure how they would afford the things that they would need to survive. They were lucky though. They’d not had to wait for a government assistance package or rely on any kind of local aid. They’d had the Stark’s to help them get back on their feet, no red tape required.

It wasn’t until he and May had been comfortably settled into the apartment that Happy had helped them locate that the aftermath of everything that had taken place had really started to sink in. The battles, the destruction, and the memory of Tony’s burnt and broken body started to weigh on Peter and it became harder and harder for him to keep his increasing anxiety at bay. 

The regular updates that he’d been receiving about his mentor's progress were no longer enough. Hearing that Tony was recovering and talking to him for all of three minutes on the phone wasn’t the same as seeing him alive and well with his own eyes. So, at his instance and with Pepper’s blessing, Happy had flown him, along with his aunt, all the way back to Wakanda to help ease his mind and give May the opportunity to talk to Pepper about the Stark Relief Foundation and how she could get involved.

Not long after landing, they had all been escorted to where the Stark’s had taken up temporary residence and that’s when Peter had met Morgan for the first time. He’d known who she was without ever having to ask. She had Tony’s eyes, Pepper’s disposition, and lived up to everything that Happy had told him about her. The girl had run up to him with a happy smile and a spark of confidence that only a true Stark could possess. 

“Pete! You’re here!” Morgan had said as if she’d known him for the entirety of her life. But the more she spoke, the more he realized that, in a way, perhaps she had. “There are pictures of you in my house and my daddy told me all about you," she’d eagerly explained and all Peter could do was stare at her. Five years had passed in what had felt like five seconds to him and the idea that Pepper and Tony had a four-year-old, was strange. He liked her though, it was hard not to. Especially when she tugged at his hand, declared Spider-Man to be her favorite hero, and asked him to join her on the floor where she had been playing with an abundance of toys prior to his arrival.

It was on that same day that Peter had gotten the initial look at the ink. It had been peeking out from under the left sleeve of the man’s hospital gown. However, he’d not taken any time to consider it. His attention had been far more occupied by the complete lack of arm on the other side. While the Regeneration Cradle had done wonders repairing the skin around Tony’s face, neck and chest, the damage to his arm had gone much deeper than the epidermal layer. Even Wakandan advancements hadn’t been able to save it. 

“Stop staring and get over here, Kid. I swear to God, if I don’t get to hug you soon I’m going to lose my shit” Tony had said with increasing urgency, once he’d lingered in the doorway for what the man had deemed a few beats too long. 

Peter had obliged, hurriedly crossing the distance, only to hesitate once he’d arrived at the bedside. While he and Tony had grown much closer in the time between his run-in with the Vulture and their impromptu trip toTitan, hugging had still been limited to a handful of sideways embraces and a few pats to the back. The first and only time he’d ever found himself, fully in his mentor’s arms, had been in the middle of the final battle against Thanos.

Something had tweaked painfully in Peter's chest at the memory. He’d just closed his eyes to combat the ache when he’d felt a tug at his shirt and had realized that Tony was trying to draw him in. He’d allowed it to happen, bending over and using both of his arms to hold on tight, while his mentor had used his one good arm to keep him pressed firmly against his chest. The position had been awkward but the sigh of relief that both of them had breathed out at the contact had made the effort well worth it.

After the first day, the rest of their time in Wakanda had flown by in a blur. Playing with Morgan had ended up being more of a regular event that Peter had expected. But he’d made a point of being with Tony whenever the man had been awake and wasn't being hauled off for some kind of treatment or therapy. Lunches had, more often than not, been eaten in Wakanda’s wide, open market with May, while dinners had been shared at the large table that someone had set up in Tony’s hospital room. Sometimes Happy would join them and it had been nice to listen to everyone talk about various things that had taken place while he, May, and half of the universe hadn’t been there to witness it. Hearing those kinds of stories had helped him feel less lost and took away some of the sting that had come from knowing how much he’d missed. He would have given anything to have been there when Tony and Pepper finally tied the knot and to hold a newborn Morgan.

At the end of the week, saying good-bye had been difficult for everyone. There were quite a few tears but the majority of them had come from Morgan who had been upset about losing her newest playmate. Peter had tentatively offered to visit once they had returned to New York and that promise had been met with the enthusiastic confirmation from every adult in the room.

He and May had returned to their apartment just in time for fall to arrive unexpectedly and force everyone to draw out their long sleeves and jackets. Meaning that once the Starks had returned home a few weeks later and Peter had begun spending more and more time at the cabin the cool, crisp air had turned downright cold causing all evidence of the tattoo’s existence to end up hidden from sight.

Several months had passed since then and with the weather finally started to warm up. Hoodies were being exchanged for short sleeves and Tony was back to wearing his favorite band t-shirts, giving Peter the opportunity to once again spot an indication of the long since forgotten art. The man’s clothing obstructed the majority of it but the longer he looked at the exposed portion of the design the more curious he became. “Hey, Tony?” he finally called out and Tony, always attentive, turned around at the sound of his name and smiled softly. 

“What’s up, kiddo?” the man replied sounding as though there was nothing in the world that could possibly be more important than whatever his young mentee was about to ask, and honestly that was true. He’d spent five years mourning the loss of his kid, the constant chatter and endless questions being directed at him from across the lab. He was grateful to have had that returned to him. 

A warm feeling blooming in Peter’s chest every time the man looked at him with such genuine care. Tony had always been somewhat parental towards him but those tendencies seemed to have amplified during the five-year stretch he’d missed out on. He assumed he had Morgan to thank for that. It appeared that having a child of his own had softened the man around the edges, making him more open and affectionate, even towards him. “I was just wondering; What’s that on your arm?” he finally asked. 

“This?” Tony questioned in return, pointing towards the wire that was currently connecting his prosthetic arm to his computer, providing him with the statistics he would need in order to fine-tune the technical functions of the limb.

Peter shook his head and vaguely gestured towards his mentor’s left side. “No, your other arm. The tattoo,” he said, followed by an inquisitive tilt of his head. “What is it?”

“Oh. That,” Tony replied, already deep in thought as he rubbed his prosthetic hand over the bicep in question. “It’s- well, I guess it was part of my way of coping with everything. I had it done right after Morgan was born,” he explained before finally lifting this sleeve to reveal the entirety of the elaborately designed art. “You’re welcome to come and take a look. I’m actually surprised that you haven't already seen it.”

Peter nodded his head but only crossed half of the distance between them, getting just close enough to see that the tattoo was grayscale and consisted of four interlocking gears of different sizes and configurations. Though, the particulars were so small that he could quite interpret them from where he stood. “Well, I sort of saw it when you were in the hospital but I couldn’t tell what it was,” he said once he felt like he’d gotten the gist of the design. “Plus, it’s been cold and we’ve all been wearing long sleeves since you got back. I guess I just sort of forgot about it until now.”

When Peter made no effort to get any closer, Tony beckoned him over, twisting his shoulder forward so that the kid could better examine the interlaced lines and fine details that had been etched into his skin. “Come on, kid You can’t possibly see all of it from all the way over there,” he said with a quirk of his brow, chuckling when the kid snapped out of whatever stupor he’d been in and started towards him again.

At first, all Peter registered was how unique and beautiful each of the individual gears had been composed and his first instinct was to lift a finger to it. He didn’t get very far before he caught himself and retracted his hand. Physical contact was something that had become much more frequent since he’d started visiting the cabin but for some reason, the simple act of brushing a finger over the man’s tattooed skin, felt personal and he didn’t want to be intrusive. 

Having not missed the way the kid had hesitated to touch him, Tony rolled his eyes towards the ceiling and smiled. “You can touch it, Pete. It’s fine.”

One slightly sheepish acknowledgment later, Peter leaned in and began to trace the edges of the largest cog with his fingertips. It was decorated with a lot of sharp angles and geometric patterns, a complete contrast to the slightly smaller one beside it. That one was covered in delicate scrolling and an array of tiny accents. Then upon further inspection, he realized that there were names etched onto the two gears he’d been inspecting. The Largest one had bold letters spelling out Tony’s name while the one beside it, predictably read ‘Pepper,’ only in a much daintier script.

Peter allowed his eyes to drift downward where the third cog connected and spotted Morgan’s name surrounded by flowers, foliage, and a single butterfly fluttering towards the top. He smiled softly and moved on to the one beside it, unsure of what to expect. Perhaps a generic placeholder for a future child or a credit to their surname but when he didn’t find either one of those things, he gasped. 

The cog was a bit larger than Morgan’s but smaller than Pepper’s and adorned with dainty webs and the molecular structure for something he didn’t have time to analyze but more importantly, there, standing out among the details was his name. “Tony. Tony, that’s my name,” he said after he’d managed to swallow the breath that had hitched in his throat.

“Yeah,” Tony chuckled, allowing his sleeve to drop as he turned fully towards the bewildered teenager before him. “It is.”

“Tony, it’s- that’s permanent,” Peter sputtered, unable to grasp why he’d been included in what had clearly been a tribute to Tony's immediate family. It didn’t make any sense for his name to have been forever inked right there beside those of the man’s wife and daughter. 

“Yeah, Kiddo,” Tony agreed, looking the kid in the eyes and nodding his head solemnly. “That was the biggest part of the appeal, Buddy,” he added, just barely squeezing the words past the emotion that was starting to build in his chest as he thought back to the day that the tattoo artist had placed the template on his arm and told him the same thing. ‘Make sure that you’re completely happy with the placement because once I start, it’s permanent.’

“But why? I don’t understand,” Peter pressed, his eyebrows drawn together in confoundment. He tried to take a few steps back but before he could, there was a hand wrapping gently around his elbow, encouraging him to stay nearby. 

“What don’t you understand, Buddy?” Tony asked with some confusion of his own. He was aware that he’d never sat the kid down and explicitly expressed exactly how much he’d come to mean to him but he’d sort of assumed that the kid knew. That he’d shown him those things through his actions. He’d given the kid a room at his penthouse in the tower and had made sure that he had a room in the cabin as well. They’d had more late-night conversations than he could count, he talked the kid down from panic attacks and as of late, he made a point of hugging him whenever the opportunity arose. Hell, spent years telling Morgan that he was her brother. “Kid, you’re-” he began only to be cut off by the loud pattering of little feet and the sudden appearance of his daughter.

“Daddy?” Morgan called out louder than necessary, considering the lab within the garage wasn’t really all that big. “ Mommy said for me to come and get you and Pete for dinner”

Tony, who was still mid-internal-struggle over how he was going to get Peter to understand his place in his life, looked between his daughter, who had climbed into his lap, and the boy, who he’d come to recognize as his son. It appeared that the teenager was hurriedly cleaning up his mess, content to use the interruption as an opportunity to drop the subject.

With everything back in its place, Peter ignored his mentor’s distressed features and reached a hand out towards Morgan. “Ready to go up?” he asked her and then followed her lead up the short flight of stairs that led into the cabin.

While eating dinner, Peter could practically feel the pensive looks that Tony was continuingly sending him but he did his best to ignore them, choosing instead to thank Pepper for the meal and listening to Morgan prattle on about the imaginary conversation she’d been having with her dolls. Her incessant talking was a blessing. It kept the adults occupied and gave him the chance to mull everything he’d just discovered over in his head. He’d always known that Tony cared but did he really think of him as family? It seemed unreal. Then his eye’s flickered towards where the tattoo was just visible beneath the man’s t-shirt. Knowing that his name was there made his heart swell and his chest tighten all at once. It was hard to fathom that Tony could love him the same way he loved his own child. 

When dinner was over, Peter volunteered to help clean up the kitchen, while Tony took Morgan upstairs for a bath. He remained relatively quiet as he dried the dishes that were being handed to him but Pepper didn’t press. They simply got the job done and just as the last glass was being placed into the cupboard, Tony reappeared with a wet-haired, pajama-clad four-year-old on his hip. 

“Come watch cartoons with us, Pete!” the little girl cheerily demanded.

Peter happily obliged, sitting through two episodes of a children’s program that he didn’t recognize, Morgan curled into his side the whole time. Though, he caught himself watching her more often than the television. He wondered how she’d been able to welcome him so easily into her routines. Then his mind drifted back to the day he met her. She’d known way more about him than he knew about her that day. ‘There are pictures of you in my house and my dad told me all about you,’ she’d said and he supposed that helped. An unintentional sigh left his lips at the memory. 

The credits rolled and Morgan begged for one more episode but Pepper was quick to scoop her up and carry her towards the stairs. Tony followed them and Peter could hear him telling his daughter good-night and whispering something into his wife's ear but didn’t try to make out the words. After that, the sound of the stairs creaking could be heard across the room, followed by a light cough beside him.

“Let’s go, Pete,” Tony said before walking over to the closest to receive his shoes.

Not wanting to come off as defiant or aloof, Peter hopped up and began to put his shoes on as well, anxiety clawing at his chest the whole time. When he’d avoided the earlier conversation he’d not done so to upset anyone and part of him was worried that he was about to be driven home. “Where are we going?” he asked, not quite meeting the man’s eyes.

“For a walk,” Tony replied with a weak smile, tossing the kid a jacket as he spoke. “Here, it’s always cooler out here once the sun sets.”

“Am I in trouble?” Peter asked once he’d zipped the jacket up to his chin and was following his mentor outside, towards the gravel path that wound through the trees and around the lake.

Tony paused, raised an eyebrow, and chuckled lightly. “Not that I’m aware of,” he said with a smirk that quickly fell seriously. “I wanted to talk to you. Just the two of us. No interruptions.”

Unsure of where the conversation was going to go, Peter took a sharp breath in, with the intent to apologize for whatever he’d done to warrant a private talking to. Though he assumed it was meant to be a continuation of the conversation that had started in the lab. “Tony, I-” he began, biting his cheek when the man held up his hand to silence him.

“Pete, just listen to me, okay?” Tony said, before carefully placing a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “I think I freaked you out a little bit with the whole tattoo thing and I want to try and clear some things up. That’s all.”

“Okay,” Peter whispered, following suit when the man resumed walking.

“The first thing that I need you to understand is that even before- Titan,” Tony said, the final word barely making it past his lips. The name of that planet alone was enough to make his throat seize up and he had to take a deep breath to loosen it. “You were my kid. Now, if anyone would have asked me, I would have denied, denied, denied but it would have been a straight-up, bold-faced lie. You were my kid. Obviously not biologically or legally or anything like that but you were far more important to me than an intern or protege. I guess I wasn’t very good at expressing that, though,” he explained, noticing, just out of the corner of his eye the way the kid’s mouth was opening and closing as if he had something to say. He remained silent, allowing the boy the space to formulate his response.

After floundering for what felt like hours, Peter gave in and offered the only coherent thought that his brain had provided him. “I mean, I’ve always known that you care about me or whatever,” he quietly mumbled.

“No, not ‘or whatever,” Tony incredulously replied. “Pete, I cared about you a lot. Rhodey used to give me a hard time about it. Ask me when I was going to sign the adoption papers and I would blow it off as a joke,” he added with a flourish of his hand but swiftly grew serious again. He still had a lot to say and wanted to get it off of his chest before the opportunity passed. “It wasn’t until you- literally crumbled right there in my hands that I realized exactly how important you were to me,” he admitted, allowing several muted beats to pass while he weighed his next words. “For a long time, all I could think about was how I failed you,”

“You didn’t fail me, Tony,” Peter expeditiously replied as he desperately searched for the exact words he would need to absolve the man of his misplaced liability. Though he was unable to come up with much. “We just- we just lost,” he helplessly elaborated, his voice teetering right on the verge of a whine.

“We did,” Tony somberly agreed, “-and that was something that I thought I was going to have to learn to live with,” he said, sucking in a deep breath. “So, I married Pepper and moved us away from the city. I thought that being out here would be easier. That I wouldn’t have to see effects of half the universe having gone missing but I never ever forgot about you.”

“Tony, I’m sorry,” Peter said with remorse. He’d spent the last several months trying to come to terms with the fact that the world had moved on without him. There were days where he still couldn't quite process it all. The gap of time he’d missed had been wide and he was still trying to catch up. He’d never considered what it had been like for those who hadn’t been turned to dust and suddenly hit with a surge of empathy that made his eyes water.

“That’s not something you need to be sorry about, Kid,” Tony assured, slowing his pace to a stop so that he could wipe away a tear that had slid down the teenager’s face. “It was outside of your control. It was outside of everyone’s control. We just didn’t have the resources or knowledge that we needed to stop- any of that from happening. But let me finish, okay, Buddy?” 

Peter leaned into the warm palm that was still caressing his face and nodded his head. When Tony drew back his hand he closed his eyes and bit back the small whimper that arose with the loss of contact. If the man noticed, he didn’t mention it. He was already a half of a step ahead of him, leaning down to pick a few rocks up off of the path. 

For a moment or two, Tony stood by the lake’s shore, tossing pebbles into the water. He noticed at some point that Peter had followed suit and that the small ripples on the moonlit surface had doubled. “This tattoo?” Tony quietly began, his eyes still tracking the stones as they were tossed “- I drew it myself. When Pepper told me that she was pregnant, I decided that I wanted a tattoo. A permanent reminder of the family I’d built, something tangible that I could never lose. I started sketching different concepts and designs. I must have gone through hundreds of them but no matter what I drew or how I tweaked it, none of them felt right. Something was always missing,” he said. “Then Morgan was born, and do you know what the first thing I told her was?" he aksed and then waited for Peter to shake his head. “I told her how much I loved her and how sad I was that her big brother wasn’t there to meet her because he would have loved her too. And that’s when it hit me. What was missing was you.”

Not knowing what to say, Pete remained silent. Part of him wanted to say something, anything but when no words came, he brought his lip between his teeth and took in a shaky breath. 

“One night after Pepper and the little miss were both asleep, I went down to the garage and pulled out the handful of drawings that I’d held onto and found this one right on top, It still didn’t look right but at that point, I knew why and it took me less than ten minutes to perfect it. With your name beside Morgan’s, it looked- whole,” Tony expressed and then turned towards the kid who had his arms wrapped defensively around his body. “Come here, Buddy,” he gently offered, holding out his own arms for the boy to fall into.

Without a second of thought, Peter accepted the invitation and allowed the man’s arms to encircle him, holding him firm and steady. “I- I guess it just- took me by surprise. I didn’t- I don’t know,” he said, trying desperately to make sense of his reaction.

“I didn't mean to spring all of this on you at once, Buddy but I guess I thought that you already knew how much I love you and if you didn’t, then that’s on me. That’s something I should have told you a long time ago,” Tony said with conviction. “But I need you to remember that when I got this tattoo, I had no way of knowing that I was ever going to get you back. So the only feelings that went into it were mine. You weren’t here to consult with, if you had been I wouldn’t have added your name without your permission and I guess my point is that you’re here now. And I understand if you don’t think of me the same way I think of you,” he said without loosening his hold, keeping one hand squarely in the middle of the kid's back while the other rested gently on the back of his head. “I understand that you had a dad and an uncle who raised you into the amazing young adult that you’ve become but I will always consider you as part of my family, Pete. Always.”

Ever so slowly, Peter pulled his head away from where it had been resting on Tony’s chest. “I love it when you call me your kid. I always have but when I got back, everything had changed. Even you. I mean, I know you’ve always cared about me. I know that, and I’ve always cared a lot about you too, but it feels like more than that now. You hug me, and you’re always touching my face or smiling at me the way May does and I love that! I really do but I thought- I just thought that you were doing those things because of Morgan. That being her dad had made you more parental by nature. I don’t guess I never considered that those tendencies were being extended to me because you think of me as a- a son?” he questioned more than he stated but there was no way that he would have ever predicted that one day, Tony would hold him close and call him his son but he had to admit that it felt good. He loved May and he was content with the little family that he had with her but it was nice to know that he was also a part of Tony’s family, that he had a man in his life, a second mother, and a little sister. It was more than he could have ever dreamed.

Tony chuckled and reached up to ruffle the boy’s hair. “I definitely think of you as a son, as does Pepper and as far as Morgan is concerned, you’re her long lost brother,” he said with a broad wave of his hand.

Peter hummed in response and turned back towards the path, casually kicking at the gravel as he walked. “I like being her brother. I always wanted a sibling,” he said with a small smile.

“Well, I’m happy I could provide,” Tony replied with a smile, grasping the back of the kid’s neck and gave it a squeeze. 

Peter’s smile grew as he intentionally bumped shoulders with the man. “I’ve also always wanted a puppy,” he said, deciding that he may as well give it a try.

With a small huff of amusement, Tony looked at the kid and then placed his hands into his pockets in an attempt to warm them up. It had to have dropped at least a few more degrees since they’d stepped outside. “Hate to break it to you, Kid but you got an alpaca instead,” he said. “No more pets. Gerald is enough of a headache”

Peter shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe Gerald just needs some more company,” he proposed.

“Maybe,” Tony mildly agreed before craning his neck so that he could see the lights shining through the cabin windows in the distance. “come on, let’s get back inside where it’s warm,” he said, already leading the way. “And with any luck, Madame Secretary will be asleep and you, me and Pepper can sit watch a movie rated above PG.”

“Star Wars?” Peter asked, mostly to annoy Tony but on this occasion, it didn’t seem to work because the man was quick to agree, albeit a bit teasingly. 

Later that evening Peter found himself beside Tony. Pepper walked in a short time later carrying a massive bowl of popcorn and joined them on the opposite side of the couch. The movie played on the screen causing little flickers of light to dance around the room as he lay still, satisfied with the position he was in. As the evening progressed and exhaustion started seeping in, he sent a tired glance towards his father figure’s face and then to where he knew the tattoo was being hidden by the thermal shirt that the man had changed into for the evening. He sighed contentedly. 

After the final battle against Thanos, he’d found himself thrust into a very different reality. Everything he’d ever known had been turned upside down and shifted in every way imaginable. It had been confusing and difficult and there were still days where I felt unsure of his place in this new existence but learning that he’d gained a second family with the Starks? That was a change he could get used to. In fact, he was sure that it was going to be the easiest thing in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> **Well, that was my very first attempt at an Endgame fix it but I really like it! I hope you do too!**
> 
> **Let me know what you think in the comments below!**  
> 


End file.
